# Eduardo Arrocha Receives the 2022 National Dance Prize.

**Date:** 07/25/2022

In the Avellaneda hall of the National Theater, a stage that has hosted his creations many times; at a Contemporary Dance of Cuba performance, his company, the company to which he has dedicated a good part of his prolific work; before hundreds of friends, colleagues, and admirers, designer Eduardo Arrocha has received the 2022 National Dance Prize.



He has deserved it for his extraordinary contributions to the visual heritage of Cuban dance. Few Cuban designers have been protagonists of so many milestones in the performing arts. Few have found that perfect symbiosis between movement and plastic framework. Arrocha is a classic.



A very close collaborator of maestro Ramiro Guerra, he was one of the main references of the great Cuban modern dance movement. This duo achieved a perfect confluence in the creative processes they undertook. And they achieved it through intense dialogue and a shared notion of culture.



Maestro Isidro Rolando, another of the pioneers, has said it: Ramiro created Cuban modern dance and Arrocha gave it color.



Some of his works explored uncharted paths for scenic design in Cuba, such as the famous Medea and the Slave Traders, by Ramiro, which broke with conventions of stage representation.



Arrocha was also the designer of great classics, such as Súlkary and Okantomí, by a famous namesake: Eduardo Rivero.



But Arrocha did more. There is no great Cuban dance company that has not benefited from his creations. One of the most celebrated designs for Swan Lake by the National Ballet of Cuba is his work. Or the Giselle that earned the Grand Prix of the Villa of Paris. And he also designed for the National Folklore Ensemble, the Camagüey Ballet, for musical spectacles and theater altogether. It is no wonder that he also deserved the National Theater Prize.



The ovation paid to him this Sunday at the National Theater is just recognition of a man who has devoted himself to dance, without needing to dance. Although he, as he has said half-jokingly more than once, considers himself one more dancer.